Monday Morning Quarterback:

Even if Corona del Mar High quarterbacks Hunter Alder and Mitch Sands managed to put the image of Newport Harbor’s nose tackle out of their minds, Coach Dick Freeman didn’t.

Newport Harbor’s seemingly relentless defensive pressure resulted in three interceptions returned for touchdowns and four sacks, and Freeman remembered the image of Harbor tackle Chase Obenauer gunning for his quarterback.

“It’s hard to make good decisions with something the size of a mack truck heading at you,” Freeman said of the bad decisions that resulted in interceptions.

“We need to come up with some answers if someone has another 290-pound guy,” Freeman said, referring to Obenauer, who is listed at 276 pounds on the roster. “Our guards are about 200 pounds each. We don’t have anyone else bigger to do that, so we need to slow them down, at least enough to get passes to our guys.”

Before Thursday, Freeman had pointed to the protection from the offensive line as a positive for the 1-3 Sea Kings. But the size discrepancy between the two schools, both in population and roster size, voided that sparkle.

“Their school’s twice as big as ours,” Freeman said. “It is mismatched, and a lot of people don’t see it that way, but it is, and that’s a fact of life.”

That difference has put CdM in the position of permanent underdog.

“We’re the underdog every year here,” Freeman said. “There’s never been an equal number of students. We do a pretty good job for what we have.”

But even though the team has started with a three-game losing streak, Freeman doesn’t think it’s spelled disaster for the rest of the season. The Sea Kings play South El Monte at Newport Harbor Friday.

“There’s more of a concern of us getting comfortable and getting confidence in what we can do,” Freeman said. “We’ve got a couple weeks to get that back. I don’t think any of this is terminal. Changing attitudes and what you do is easy. As long as you’ve got the same guys and you’ve got people working hard, you’re good. We really haven’t put ourselves in a hole, we just haven’t found out what we can do yet.”

It’s a mantra that runs through the heads of all football coaches: Stay healthy.

It’s something that’s become more important to Newport Harbor Coach Jeff Brinkley as the Sailors face formidable Pac-5 Division opponents that have the resources to use most, if not all players on just one side of the ball.

To stay competitive, injuries must be limited, but after three games, Brinkley may already have to face down the prospect of shuffling the starting lineup.

Starting tailback Ben Frazier exited during the first quarter of Newport’s 41-7 win over Corona del Mar Thursday with a knee injury, and Michael Helfrich took over most of the running duties for the Tars.

“Michael is very capable,” Brinkley said. “But it ends up making us have another person play both ways full-time. With Ben being able to carry the ball, Michael could concentrate defensively. That’s where it starts affecting you.”

Brinkley and Frazier still don’t know the results from the magnetic resonance imaging scan done on Frazier’s knee. The running back guessed Thursday that the hit he sustained affected his medial collateral ligament.

“We don’t know what the status is,” Brinkley said. “We’re certainly hoping that he’s OK. Ben’s obviously a great player for us.”

Even for a team that conditions with the fervor and intensity that Newport Harbor does, being able to keep players fresh has an impact on the game.

“When you play at the level we play at, it wears on you,” Brinkley said.

Newport Harbor will play at Dana Hills Friday. The Sailors haven’t beaten Dana Hills since a 35-20 win two years ago.

After another run-away victory, this time over Webb, Sage Hill Coach Pete Anderson warned his team that the next game against Bakersfield Christian would not be such a walk in the park.

“Our game plan will be the same,” Anderson said. “But the athletes we’ll be playing against will be at a higher level than what we’ve seen. Across the board, every player will be playing against the best opposition they’ve seen this year.”

Like Sage Hill, Bakersfield Christian is undefeated, and the meeting will give one of the teams its first loss of the season.

“Just seeing them on film, they’re big, they’re fast, and well-coached,” Anderson said. “It’ll be a very good test. They also have a very high level of athleticism.”

Anderson has been happy with improvement from quarterback Jamie McGee because he has continued to diversify the passing attack, firing the ball to at least four different receivers.

“In the past, he keyed on one receiver and would force the ball to him,” Anderson said. “He feels comfortable with the whole receiving corps and he’ll throw it to the open man because he trusts all of them.”

Having solidified Estancia’s defense over the past few weeks, while the offense has still been playing catch-up, coach Mike Bargas wasn’t expecting the Eagles to relinquish 35 points to JSerra.

But Friday night, one week removed from their first win of the season, Bargas thought the Eagles looked flat. The spark that ignited the team before just wasn’t there.

“We prepped for them, but I don’t think we were in the right mind-frame,” Bargas said. “They were quiet, but I don’t think they were ready to play Friday night. The mood just wasn’t there.”

Still, the offense picked up, with quarterback Mike Morley throwing one touchdown and running for another one.

Morley and junior running back Carlos Mendez combined for 190 rushing yards in the 35-19 loss to JSerra.

“I think offensively, we did a better job this week and sputtered defensively,” Bargas said, recounting how JSerra ran the same play repeatedly, but the defense didn’t make the proper reads to be in position for key stops.

The Eagles recorded six sacks, but failed to make stops crucial third downs, Bargas said.

“There were just a lot of undisciplined mistakes that we need to work on,” Bargas said. “We’re getting there, but if it’s not one thing, it’s the other thing.”

After making adjustments to minimize the number of boys playing both ways, coach Jeremy Osso found himself with an unexpected problem last week: The adjustments didn’t pack as much punch as he’d hoped, thanks to the flu.

The Mustangs junior varsity game was canceled because so many of the football players — and even a few coaches — were afflicted with a flu bug.

John Salyer ended up staying on the field for the majority of the game against Bolsa Grande because his backup, Josh Erno, was incapacitated with the flu, Osso said.

“All I know is that some of my coaches weren’t able to avoid it, but I was and that’s all I cared about,” Osso said, joking.

Osso estimated he lost six players due to the flu, and running back Antwon Byrd is still sitting out because of a hip flexor. Nick Haynes is also still unavailable because of a knee injury.

Haynes will sit out for at least another two weeks, and then his doctor will re-evaluate him.

Costa Mesa did manage to make strides on both sides of the ball. After losing two straight shutouts, Costa Mesa scored on Brian Waldron’s 26-yard touchdown pass to Salyer.

The 22 points the Mustangs allowed in the 22-6 decision was the smallest number of points the defense has given up all season.

“We’re getting drives now,” Osso said. “Now we’re realizing that we can do it, we just need to sustain the drives longer offensively.”

SORAYA NADIA McDONALD may be reached at (714) 966-4613 or at [email protected].